Sacramento River Cats & SF Giants Press Clips Sunday, August 13, 2017 Article Source Author Page Sacramento stung by Salt Lake despite Suarez s brilliance River Cats Arnold-Gordon 1 Stratton gets day game to open doubleheader MLB.com Raby 2 Instant Analysis: Five takeaways from Giants delayed loss to Nationals CSN Bay Area Pavlovic 2 Giants Mark Melancon activated from DL SF Gate Shea 3 Giants lose but Nationals suffer the worst of it The Mercury News Baggarly 4 The coach s son: Giants rookie Ryder Jones has been playing The Mercury News Baggarly 7 with older kids his entire life
Sacramento stung by Salt Lake despite Suarez's brilliance By Evan Arnold-Gordon Andrew Suarez gave the Sacramento River Cats (50-69) 8.1 phenomenal innings Saturday night, but it was not enough as the Salt Lake Bees (60-60) hit a three-run home run after his departure to steal the game away, 3-1. Suarez threw a career-high 8.1 innings tonight, striking out eight Salt Lake hitters, four of which were looking. After allowing a single and a double in the ninth, the left-hander was relieved by right-hander Tyler Rogers. Rogers was able to retire the first hitter he faced and came within one strike of ending the game before Bees' right fielder Shane Robinson shocked the 13,000-plus at Raley Field with his go-ahead three-run homer. Mac Williamson went deep in the seventh inning for what seemed to be the winning run, putting the River Cats up 1-0. The Sacramento offense was silent other than that, managing just six hits while going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. With tonight's loss, Sacramento ended their four-game winning streak against Salt Lake and five-game home winning streak. Sacramento will send left-hander Matt Gage (0-6, 7.30) to the hill tomorrow to face Salt Lake's righthander Daniel Wright (6-7, 7.13). First pitch is set for 5:05 p.m. (PT) and the game can be heard live online at rivercats.com and on the air on ESPN 1320. Postgame Notes Quote of the Night: "I felt good. I've just been focusing on throwing strikes and keeping the ball down. It's been good these last few starts." - Andrew Suarez on his start tonight. Suarez: Left-hander Andrew Suarez allowed two runs on six hits tonight without allowing a walk took his fifth loss of the season tonight tied a season-high by tossing 107 pitches and set a season-high with 74 strikes now has five straight quality starts in his last four starts, owns a 1.53 ERA (5 ER, 29.1 IP). Williamson: Right fielder Mac Williamson finished 1-for-4 tonight was his first home run since June 22 at Fresno now second on the team with 36 RBI. Rogers: Right-hander Tyler Rogers made his league-leading 47th appearance tonight allowed his first home run at home this season in what was his fifth blown save of the year. Shaw: Designated hitter Chris Shaw was replaced by Ryan Lollis in the sixth inning tonight after being hit by a pitch in the fourth inning went 0-for-1 before being removed. *** The Sacramento River Cats are the Triple-A affiliate of the three-time World Champion San Francisco Giants. The team plays at Raley Field in West Sacramento, consistently voted one of the top ballparks in America. River Cats Season Tickets, Mini-Plans, and Flex Plans can be purchased for the 2017 season by calling the River Cats Ticket Hotline at (916) 371-HITS (4487). For more information about the River Cats, visit www.rivercats.com. For information on other events at Raley Field, visit www.raleyfield.com. 1
Stratton gets day game to open doubleheader By Ben Raby / Special to MLB.com When the ace of his pitching staff speaks, Nationals manager Dusty Baker listens. So, when Max Scherzer asked to start the second game of Sunday's doubleheader against the Giants rather than the first, Baker adhered. "We've got to kind of acquiesce to what the aces want to do," Baker said. Full Game Coverage Scherzer was originally scheduled to pitch Game 1 on Sunday, but his preference to pitch at night led to a conversation with Baker. Scherzer is 9-1 with a 2.35 ERA in 16 night starts this season. He is 3-4, albeit with a 1.96 ERA, in seven day starts. One of Scherzer's best outings of the season came against the Giants when he tossed a complete game May 31 in San Francisco. Scherzer allowed five hits and one run while striking out 11 with no walks. The Giants will counter will Matt Moore in Game 2. The left-hander is 3-12 with a 5.88 ERA this season and has had a particularly tough time with lefties, who are hitting.396 against him with a 1.099 OPS. Right-hander A.J. Cole will start Game 1 for the Nationals with a new start time of 1:05 p.m. ET. Cole is 1-2 with a 5.63 ERA as he continues to fill Stephen Strasburg's spot in the rotation. Rookie Chris Stratton starts the opener for the Giants, still in search of his first win of the season. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA. Things to know about this game San Francisco's bullpen has not allowed a run in its last 20 2/3 innings. One of the Giants' strengths of late could get even stronger with a healthy Mark Melancon reinstated from the disabled list Saturday. The Nationals bullpen has also impressed of late, thanks to newcomers Brandon Kintzler (2-0, 6 IP, 0 ER), Ryan Madson (2-0, 9 IP, 0 ER) and Sean Doolittle (8-for-8 in save opportunities). Giants outfielder and Virginia native Jarrett Parker is playing at Nationals Park for the first time this weekend. The 28-year-old, who missed 96 games this season with a fractured clavicle, purchased more than a dozen tickets for each of this weekend's games. Instant Analysis: Five takeaways from Giants' delayed loss to Nationals By Alex Pavlovic August 12, 2017 10:10 PM WASHINGTON D.C. At 1:16 a.m. at Nationals Park, the Giants lost the game 3-1. The home team lost much more than that on this night. 2
Nationals superstar right fielder Bryce Harper appeared to suffer a serious injury to his left knee in the first inning, putting another dark cloud over a long night. The Nationals scored two runs in that inning and that would be all they needed. A night after the teams were rained out, they waited three hours and one minute to get started because of an ugly storm that drenched the area. The crowd stayed engaged, but within minutes, a hush fell over Nationals Stadium. Harper slipped on first base while trying to beat out a grounder to Ryder Jones, and his knee went the wrong direction. He immediately grabbed at it as he rolled on the ground, and he was helped off the field without putting any pressure on his leg. The Nationals did not have an update during the game. For now, here are five things to know from a wet night - Ryder Jones isn t hitting much, but he sure plays a nice first base. His diving stop robbed Andrew Stevenson of a single in the fifth. Jones also showed his athleticism a couple of ways on the Harper play, first by stopping the hard shot and then by twisting his body to avoid a collision with Harper at the bag. - The Giants are looking at 27 innings of baseball in about 24 hours, so every out from Jeff Samardzija was huge. He threw 120 pitches on a humid night while getting through six innings. He tied Matt Moore for the most pitches thrown by a Giants starter this season. - Mark Melancon pitched the eighth, making his first appearance since June 27. He gave up a single and struck out one. His fastball topped out at 93 mph. That's a good sign on the first night back. - Joe Panik opened the scoring with a long homer in the first. It was his seventh of the year. He has a chance to surpass his career-high of 10. - Denard Span is in a funk. He rolled out to second three times in four plate appearances, and he has just five hits in his last 41 at-bats. Giants Mark Melancon activated from DL By John Shea Updated 11:38 pm, Saturday, August 12, 2017 WASHINGTON Mark Melancon s season has not gone according to plan. It hasn t been easy. It hasn t been fun, Melancon said. It s been a tough (time) on the DL. So, yeah, I m excited to get out there and get going. The Giants activated the closer from the disabled list Saturday, and Melancon allowed a hit and struck out one in a shutout inning against the Nationals in San Francisco s 3-1 loss. Melancon, signed in the offseason for four years and $62 million, hadn t pitched since June 27, and his pronator strain twice sent him to the DL, a short stint in May followed by a longer one that prompted a more deliberate timetable. 3
Get back to what I ve done the past three years, he said when asked what he wants to accomplish the final six weeks. Get back in a routine, get back to what I m capable of doing. It ll be nice to get back out there, really. Melancon made four rehab starts, his latest a scoreless, two-strikeout inning on Wednesday. To create a roster spot, the Giants placed infielder Miguel Gomez on the DL with right knee inflammation. In Melancon s absence, Sam Dyson assumed the closer s role and has eight saves (in nine chances) and a 2.22 ERA in 23 outings. Manager Bruce Bochy said he ll ease Melancon back into the fold in lowerleverage situations. He s been great. He s done an excellent job. I feel like we ve got a diamond in the rough, Melancon said of Dyson, his teammate in the World Baseball Classic. With Dyson not eligible for free agency until 2021 and left-hander Will Smith coming off Tommy John surgery, Melancon said the Giants bullpen could be exciting and promising for years to come. Meantime, the name Melancon chose for the Aug. 25-27 Players Weekend when players will wear nicknames on their jerseys is clever: Stretch. Not to steal from Hall of Famer Willie McCovey but to make light of a Fox Sports report that he rubbed teammates the wrong way by altering the time relievers take the field to pregame stretch. It was kind of easy, Melancon said of choosing the nickname. New man: Infielder Orlando Calixte will be the Giants 26th man for Sunday s doubleheader. It was believed he d be eligible for just the nightcap. The Giants say he s eligible for both games. He s being called up from Triple-A Sacramento. Giants lose but Nationals suffer the worst of it as Bryce Harper grabs knee in agony By ANDREW BAGGARLY abaggarly@bayareanewsgroup.com Bay Area News Group WASHINGTON The Giants arrived in the District of Columbia late Wednesday night. By the time they saw their first pitch at Nationals Park, it was after 10 p.m. on Saturday. But there are worse things than waiting through rain delays and postponements. Much, much worse. The ballpark fell into stunned silence in the first inning of the Nationals 3-1 victory when star player Bryce Harper stomped on a wet first base, his cleat slid, his left knee buckled and he went flying as if violently ejected from a moving vehicle. Harper s face twisted in agony as he held his left knee. It took a trainer and a base coach to assist him off the field. All the while down the dugout stairs, then down the tunnel to the clubhouse he put no weight on his injured left leg. 4
The Nationals announced that Harper hyperextended his knee, and they will cross their fingers that an MRI exam turns up no more than that. Anything worse would mean torn ligaments, and surgery, and a significant handicap in October for a team that should coast to its fourth NL East title in five years yet thus far has failed to advance beyond the best-of-5 NL Division Series. And it would mean that Major League Baseball s greatest stage would be deprived one of its most talented and recognizable players one of few legitimate and marketable stars who resonate beyond casual fans of the game. On a night when Dusty Baker tied Giants counterpart Bruce Bochy and Lou Piniella for 14th place on the all-time managerial victories list, the Nationals skipper and former Giants field general began his postgame news conference by appealing for prayers. We re just urging everybody out there who are Nationals fans and baseball fans to say a prayer for him tonight, Baker said. Because he was in obvious pain out there, but we re hoping for the best. Silence goes over the crowd and you re just thinking, `Please Lord, just don t let it be serious. Harper entered the game ranked fourth in the NL in hitting (.326), fourth in on-base percentage (.419), third in slugging (.619) and second in OPS (1.034). Only the Rockies Charlie Blackmon had scored more runs. He had 29 homers and was on pace to hit 41 while driving in 124. Saturday night was the first time the Giants and Nationals crossed paths since the late May series at AT&T Park, and the benches-clearing incident that was window dressing for a one-on-one confrontation between Harper, right-hander Hunter Strickland and the reliever s three-year grievance that he apparently tried to square with a fastball to the hip. There was no malice attached to Harper s injury. Only moisture. The Nationals delayed the first pitch for three hours, including the first 45 minutes with the field tarped under partly sunny skies because of an approaching thunderstorm. With a split doubleheader looming Sunday, the last thing these teams wanted was to start Saturday s game and lose both starting pitchers to a lengthy delay after two or three innings. So they waited three hours before the storm could pass and the field could be prepped. But there was little that could be done about the wet bases. Harper hit a ground ball to the right side and first baseman Ryder Jones made a lunging stop before racing to the bag. He did a credible job of clearing the lane for Harper, and pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who had raced over to cover, also veered away from a potential collision. Jones didn t see Harper go down. But he immediately knew what caused it. I heard all the fans go, `Ohhh, Jones said. It s a freak accident. The tops of the bases were wet. You never want that to happen to a player, whether he s on your team or the other team. Harper s loss will be felt by a team that is on pace to win 97 games yet will enter October as nobody s favorite because of the historic dominance that has happened at Dodger Stadium this season. 5
The Nationals are seeking to avenge their NLDS loss to the Dodgers last year in a series that went to a decisive fifth game, and a one-run loss when Clayton Kershaw came out of the bullpen to record the final two outs. It was the latest October disappointment for Baker, who has become the Greg Norman of major league managers, toothpick and wristbands included. Baker, 68, has managed eight teams to the postseason but is still chasing his first ring as a skipper; his only pennant came with the 2002 Giants, who came so tantalizingly close before he took the ball from Russ Ortiz in Game 6 at Anaheim and watched the Angels brush past him that night and the next. He was the Cubs manager in 2003 for the Bartman game. He was the Reds manager in 2012 when the Giants rattled off three consecutive elimination wins in Cincinnati. Now he has to hope and pray that a wet base, and a terrible spill, won t be the event that denies him this time. Hopefully he ll be there for them, because they re in a great situation, Bochy said. More likely, Harper will be out awhile. And if he is done for the year, Bochy reminded that his 2012 Giants team pulled together and won the World Series after their most potent offensive player, Melky Cabrera, was lost to a 50-game suspension after he flunked a performance-enhancing drug test. Different circumstances, but our team came together, Bochy said. They said, hey, we can t focus on this. Baker cannot match Bochy s three World Series rings as a manager, and while he sat out the 2014-15 seasons waiting for a call to manage again, Bochy passed him on the all-time victories list, too. But this season, with the Giants off in a ditch, Baker has caught up. Baker has 1,834 wins in 22 seasons. He tied Bochy, who had matched Piniella when the Giants beat the Cubs at home on Wednesday. Of the 13 managers ahead of them, only Gene Mauch is not in the Hall of Fame. There s a good chance Baker passes Bochy in this series. His best pitcher, Max Scherzer, will take the mound against Chris Stratton for Game 1 of Sunday s doubleheader, which was pushed up to 10:05 a.m. PDT so the Nationals can clear the ballpark between games. Game 2 (Matt Moore vs. A.J. Cole) will begin at 4:05 p.m. PDT. It means the Giants will have a late night flight to Miami before their series opener there on Monday. And they won t have a rested starter to take the ball on Wednesday. They could use Matt Cain or Albert Suarez to run the first leg of a bullpen game. Joe Panik hit a solo home run in the first inning but the Giants offense once again struggled against Edwin Jackson, whose fastball and slider also proved puzzling when he was with the San Diego Padres. We came out swinging good, said Bochy, noting that Jarrett Parker stole his way into scoring position in the first inning and the Giants had two quick hits in the second before failing to land another RBI hit. Both pitchers settled in and pitched well. 6
Jeff Samardzija gave up two runs on three hits in the first inning, and then Adam Lind hit an RBI double in the sixth as the Nationals stopped his three-start win streak. Samardzija threw 120 pitches in six innings. The Giants activated right-hander Mark Melancon (right forearm pronator strain) from the disabled list and placed infielder Miguel Gomez (knee) on the 10-day DL. Melancon pitched the eighth his first game since June 27 and he hit 93 mph while pitching around a hit in a scoreless inning. Melancon struck out one and his other outs came on a nubber to the mound and a pop-up. I thought the stuff was good, Bochy said. He made an 0-2 mistake but he regrouped and got out of it. I thought it was a perfect situation for him. The Giants and Nationals are allowed to add a 26th man to the roster for both games on Sunday. The Giants put utilityman Orlando Calixte on a red-eye flight and plan to activate him. The coach s son: Giants rookie Ryder Jones has been playing with older kids his entire life By ANDREW BAGGARLY abaggarly@bayareanewsgroup.com Bay Area News Group SAN FRANCISCO Giants rookie Ryder Jones never spent much of his childhood in one place. He followed along as his father, Billy, went from one job assignment to the next: Washington to Oregon to Arizona to Oklahoma to North Carolina. It was like being in a military family. Except each new base came in sets of four, arranged in a diamond. Being an assistant college baseball coach is a hard life, with few guarantees or permanent addresses. It s inspiring to me, just because of where he came from, said Ryder, as he gazed out onto the grass at AT&T Park. He didn t have very much money growing up. He threw himself into the coaching community and proved some people wrong and he s still doing it 25 years later. He s an established name now. That s exactly what I m trying to do, just in a different profession. Ryder is hitting.140 in his first 13 games, but study his round face and you don t see the panicked look of a 23-year-old rookie. That s probably because he has been playing with and against older kids his entire life. Wherever his father was coaching, including an eight-year stint as an assistant at Oklahoma State, Ryder had a uniform and a place to dress in the clubhouse. When he was 12, he began playing in team scrimmages alongside college scholarship athletes defense only at first. When he was even younger than that, he d take infield and outfield practice before games. 7
We d literally put him at shortstop and hook the machine up and shoot ground balls at him, said Billy Jones, now an assistant at Tulane, holding a phone to his ear as he recruited players at the Area Code Games in Southern California. We re ranked fifth in the country and he s taking infield in front of 15,000 people as we re getting ready to play Oklahoma. I mean, he s just doing it. We exposed him to as much as we could. Those eight years at Oklahoma State provided stability for Ryder and his younger brother, Utah. Then came the next move, and when a head coaching job finally opens up, no time is too inconvenient. The family moved to Appalachian State in Boone, North Carolina. For Ryder, it meant leaving his friends and playing his senior year of high school somewhere totally new. You re looking forward to hanging out and having a breezy senior year with your buddies, Ryder said. But I knew for our family it was the right move. It was the next step for his father, who began his career as an unpaid junior college coach before moving on to volunteer assistant positions for four years, getting by on money he earned as a camp instructor and giving private lessons. I felt bad having to move them around, and when they were leaving friends, it became tougher for them, said Billy Jones, who praised his ex-wife, Tiffani, for being so supportive through it all. Sports, thank goodness, was a way for them to meet new people and get out in the community. But the move to Appalachian State was complicated by the fact that Ryder was just beginning to fashion himself into a legitimate prospect. The coach s son had all the aptitude from a young age. Physically, though, he was a late bloomer. Billy Jones was realistic about his son s chances. You know, Ryder was never famous. He wasn t very good, just to be honest, Billy said, laughing. Billy told his sons from a young age: have fun playing baseball, and if you ever want to get serious about it, come to me and we ll talk. Ryder was a bit pudgy, and didn t have any standout tools. He only made his high school varsity team as a sophomore because he could pitch. Then came the summer when he grew 8 inches. Around the 10th grade, he came to me and said, `Dad I want to do this for real and I want to play at Stanford, Billy Jones said. And I m like, `Ryder, um, we ve got a little ways to go for that. A year later, Ryder attended a development camp at Stanford. Current Giants teammate Austin Slater was among the players who hosted him in the dorms. He got the scholarship offer. He achieved a goal that seemed so far-fetched. Then he turned Stanford down. He became the first Stanford recruit in more than six years to rescind his verbal commitment. The Giants, armed with detailed reports from area scout Donnie Suttles and crosschecker Doug Mapson, drafted Ryder a bit higher than expected. They offered him $880,000 to sign and report to the minor league complex in Arizona. 8
Playing with older kids didn t bother him one bit. (Slater) still says to me `Aw, you never would ve gotten playing time at Stanford, Ryder said. I think he likes messing with me about that. Giants manager Bruce Bochy usually doesn t like to move young players around the diamond, believing that it s easier to get overwhelmed when you re asked to play multiple positions. But he is committed to getting Ryder everyday at-bats, and he has expressed no reservations about starting him at third base, first base or either corner outfield spot. All those afternoons taking infield and outfield practice with college players taught him where to be, where to throw and how to react no matter where he s stationed. Billy Jones flew to San Francisco and was in the stands for Ryder s debut June 24, but he didn t get to witness his son s first hit. Ryder went 0 for 16 on the homestand. He struck out just three times and wasn t overmatched, but he didn t catch any breaks on balls in play. When that first hit came June 30 at Pittsburgh, Billy Jones had the best possible proxy to witness the moment at PNC Park. Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer was his most talented player at Oklahoma State, and the guy that Ryder latched onto. I always took ground balls with him at shortstop, Ryder said. He was the kind of player I wanted to be. He had a great arm and was the closer on the team, too. We got along really well. I basically just stalked him and followed him around. It was probably annoying for him, but it was great for me. When Ryder served his first hit to left field, Mercer took the throw. He pretended to tuck the ball in his back pocket as a joke. Billy Jones, watching on TV, checked his phone and saw a text from Mercer s mother: Did you see what Jordy just did? I mean, that was Ryder s idol. That was his mentor, Billy Jones said. He wanted to be Jordy. It s just surreal the ball got hit out there. It s kind of crazy how that worked out. So many sons of coaches become automatons, numbed by a lifetime of criticism or made to feel like they cannot think for themselves. That is not the story with Billy Jones and his two boys. (Utah just finished his sophomore season at the University of North Carolina.) In fact, when Billy calls Ryder on the phone, he admits that the son often teaches the coach something new I ve learned a lot from Ryder, and we kick ideas off each other all the time. Billy said. We don t always talk baseball. But when we do, it s more about how you prepare, how you go through that process, and do you love that process? After hitting his first big league home run on the Giants last homestand, a reporter asked Ryder what he wants to accomplish in the final two months of the season. Did he hope to establish himself? No, he said. He and Jarrett Parker and Pablo Sandoval talked about it when they came up from Triple-A Sacramento: their goal is to bring energy and enthusiasm to the team, so that the Giants will be better equipped to turn the mental page on a disappointing season. 9
Billy Jones wasn t surprised to hear how his son answered the question. He s seen enough baseball that he knows it s a hard game to be good at, Billy said. There s a lot more failure than there is success. I always taught him, `Hey, enjoy the good, because the good is hard to get. He hasn t gotten a bunch of hits yet but you wouldn t know it. As a dad, I think I m proudest of that. 10